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Unlikely duo pair up for criminal justice reforms

Rand Paul, a leader in the tea party movement and possible 2016 presidential candidate, has allied with Booker, a liberal former mayor of Newark, to press for major reforms of the nation’s criminal justice system.

For the latest example, we point you to Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., and Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J.

Paul, a leader in the tea party movement and possible 2016 presidential candidate, has allied with Booker, a liberal former mayor of Newark, to press for major reforms of the nation’s criminal justice system.

The pairing prompted talk in Washington of a “bromance” and the “odd couple.”

The two senators appeared together last week at Politico’s “Playbook Cocktails” series and were clearly at ease with each other and amused by the fascination over their budding relationship.

“I’m just worrying who’s Felix and who’s Oscar?” joked Booker.

Paul wondered whether they might get a reality television series.

On the serious side, the lawmakers have proposed the REDEEM Act, which stands for Record Expungement Designed to Enhance Employment.

Their bill would make a number of major changes: states would be encouraged not to send children under 18 into the adult criminal courts; records of youths who commit non-violent crimes before age 15 would be automatically expunged and those you commit non-violent crimes after 15 would have their records automatically sealed; low-level drug offenders would be restored their benefits under certain circumstances and conditions.

The underlying intent is to make criminal records less of an obstacle to getting employment and restoring civil rights.

“You serve your time, you should get a second chance,” Paul said of the bill.

The senator also said he had spoken to President Barack Obama about the measure and “he’s supportive of the concept” and wants to host a White House meeting on the issue.

Booker noted that the United States has only five percent of the world’s population but houses a quarter of the global prison population. Seventy-two percent of U.S. prisoners are non-violent criminals, he said.

“We have a serious problem that is costing taxpayers...a quarter of a trillion dollars of year,” Booker said. “We can be saving money and empowering people to succeed.”

To be sure, an African-American Democratic senator from the Northeast working with a white GOP senator from a Border South state is a refreshing change from the mano-a-mano conflict between Democrats and Republicans that has defined Washington politics in recent years.

But there are advantages to Paul and Booker in the alliance.

Paul, a rising star in the GOP and a possible contender for the White House in 2016, has been on the road preaching more inclusiveness to his fellow Republicans. That means, he says, broadening the party’s appeal to African Americans, Hispanics, other minorities, women and youth. It’s either that, or the party will cease to be, Paul has warned.

Obviously, legislation that would help overcome laws that Paul says “have a racial outcome” would be just the kind of approach the senator could point to in making his case that he is a Republican with broader appeal.

Booker likewise is a rising star in the Democratic Party and a potential future presidential candidate as well. Partnering with Paul shows that Booker can work across the political aisle to find common ground on difficult issues.

But Paul especially is facing considerable skepticism that he is the right messenger for a more inclusive, tolerant Republican Party.

“If the African-American community delves behind Paul's outstretched hand, we find a man whose words and deeds expose a troubling belief system, whose votes have consistently opposed policies that advance our community,” former Kentucky State Sen. Georgia Powers, a Democrat, wrote last week in The Courier-Journal.

Paul defended himself in a response in the newspaper: “Our nation has made great strides on civil rights in the past 50 years. I was too young to have marched with Dr. King, but I like to think that I would have. Now there is more to do, and I want to help lead the way, in the ways that I can. No one in Congress is doing more to address these important civil rights issues and I won't rest until we have an America that is truly colorblind.”

That stirred the Democratic National Committee to go after Paul.

“Now that he is running for president, he suddenly becomes the champion of outreach. Senator Paul should know we haven’t forgotten his past on these issues,” Ashley Miller, Democratic candidate for state representative in Kentucky’s 32nd District, told reporters.

But Booker is working with Paul and seems pleased to have found an advocate for justice reform in what some might think an unlikely quarter.

Booker, who sports a clean-shaven head, also has extracted a commitment from the Kentuckian. He told the Politico forum that if their legislation passes, Paul “promised me he’s going to shave his head.” The curly-headed Paul laughed and insisted that didn’t happen.

Follow politics and government news on The Courier-Journal’s politics blog and Facebook page at www.facebook.com/ cjpolitics. Follow James R. Carroll on Twitter @JRCarrollCJ. He can be reached at (703) 854-8945.